Reading through Guo Xiang
Examine how Guo Xiang’s commentary turns the parables into a philosophy of spontaneity and allotted nature that shaped later readings.
An original introduction. This guide accompanies the work; it is neither the complete text nor a translation.
Situating the text
Guo Xiang, who died in 312, belonged to the Wei-Jin current of “dark learning”, which reread the Laozi, the Zhuangzi and the Book of Changes. Medieval sources accused him of appropriating Xiang Xiu’s earlier commentary; current scholarship regards him as the principal author, drawing on predecessors. Guo Xiang’s commentary accompanies the whole 33-chapter text and reads it through the idea that every being is “so of itself”: things arise and transform spontaneously, without a creator, and each finds freedom in fulfilling its own nature. On this reading the great bird and the small cicada are equally at ease.
Following the arguments
Self-so : Ziran means that things are what they are of themselves; Guo Xiang denies that a separate Dao or creator produces them. Allotted nature : Each being has its own measure of capacities, and contentment comes from acting within it rather than envying others. Sage and government : The sage can take part in government while his mind wanders freely, a reading that reconciles Zhuangzi with political order.
Continuing the reading
Compare Guo Xiang’s notes on the first chapter with the passage itself, and ask whether his equal freedom of large and small softens the contrast the text draws between them. Guo Xiang, who died in 312, belonged to the Wei-Jin current of “dark learning”, which reread the Laozi, the Zhuangzi and the Book of Changes. Medieval sources accused him of appropriating Xiang Xiu’s earlier commentary; current scholarship regards him as the principal author, drawing on predecessors.
A commentary can preserve a text while redirecting what its readers expect to find in it.
Your turn to think.
- Where does Guo Xiang’s reading of the cicada and the great bird depart from the text?
- Can freedom consist in contentment with one’s allotted nature?
Your selection and progress stay in this browser.